One of BEW’s outside sound counsultants, Hessler Engineering, arrived this afternoon and began setting up to commence baseline operations sound measurement. The goal is to bring the facility to 75% throughput and take an array of samples surrounding the site, fanning outward at set intervals, and in various directions. In order to eliminate any extraneous sound sources not associated with the plant, the testing must be done in the dead of night. The crew scheduled a start time of 4AM, when the plant would be the only thing in the area generating any sounds (other than frogs and crickets!).

Hessler will be particularly focused on identifying any specific components which still produce isolated sounds after the blankets we’ve installed on some of the larger, noisier pieces of equipment. We’ll report back on just what may be causing the other sounds.